To be really worried about proposed teacher strikes.

[katedan]

In England not Scotland for context. My twin daughters are year 11 and I am terrified about the impact of teacher strikes on their GCSEs. They have not yet covered the curriculum and every day counts to get them exam ready so strike days will be disastrous for year 11 and 13 pupils ( and lots of other children especially those who are vulnerable) these kids have had their education impacted by covid and now strikes. This will make the divide between state and private schools even bigger. Do you think they will go ahead or if a safety net will be put around exam years if it does.

This!

YANBU
DS is in Y12 and his teachers don’t show up to half the lessons and don’t set homework either. It’s shocking. I wish I had gone private, but I think unless you pay for the really top private schools, they are just as bad as the state schools. Not sure if I support the strike as why strike when they don’t show up to work half the time anyway.

It’s bloody awful. I totally understand and support why the strikes are happening but the effect on the kids is just awful. Mine is not overly academic but tries so hard. 1st year of high school his school burnt down on 3rd day there, he spent rest of year is temp accommodation for learning. Year 2/3 was covid. Now back and say his first prelims today. Could see the tears in his eyes when he walked in and how fragile he looked. Said some of the stuff they have never even covered. Our kids are being failed

@PyjamaFan why thank you! 😄 Still waiting for it all to blow over 😩😳😳😬🤷‍♀️.

Barring sen they are old enough to take responsibility for their own education

Yes, that’s what I meant! Sorry, have just seen it could be taken two ways.

@PennyRa give it a few years and all kids will have to take responsibility for their own education as they’ll be no teachers left 🤷‍♀️

I think you need to be careful how you relay your worries to your children. Echoing previous comment, you will create a "poor me" mentality full of excuses. They know if they fail they can blame it on the strikes and you will back them despite it realistically being down to the poor work ethic and lack of motivation to revise. It's not setting themselves up very well for university and the working world, where they will have bigger disruptions than a few days of not being directed exactly what to learn.

But they won't be being taught the content they need for their exams, it is not just revision at this point

I was a teacher for 26 years. I left in 2021, as l’d just had enough of it all. But l was still teaching course content at this point in the year. Gove made exams harder by inersting more content.

lf l was still teaching l’d absolutely be striking.

If they are on strike there probably won’t be enough staff to cover exam years. And in a secondary school what’s the point in day, a drama teacher covering a Y11 Naths lesson?

A strike is designed to cause disruption and inconvenience. You can’t expect teachers who are teaching exam groups not to strike. Teachers are putting themselves first for once.

I completely agree. I have a Y13 DS who missed his GCSE’s due to Covid. He is now having to basically self teach himself one of his A levels due to not having a teacher and his predicted A grade is looking more and more unlikely. I’m happy to get a tutor but it’s for Psychology and I can’t seem to find a Psychology A level tutor either. I’d rather a few days of strikes (and I’m a TA so I know how hard it is in schools) than having the same situation in a few years time with DS2 who is Y7.

Thank you for the comments and I appreciate there is no good time in the year to strike and of course the unions want maximum negative impact to make their point. I remember the teachers strikes of the 80s and the way that affected kids but following on from school closures due to covid it seems a double whammy.

I am very interested in those saying it is only a few days and no big deal etc I don't think prior to covid schools felt like this, attendance was very important it now feels like a few days here and there will not matter but I disagree the stress and pressure of the school being closed will impact those in exam years as it is a difficult time already and they are already worried they are behind.

Also the point about it impacting all year 11s and 13s so the marking will just lower is not accurate as children in private schools where there will be no strikes will just get the higher grades.

Exactly, the year 13s don't even have a year

yabu

I have an exam aged dc and am not concerned.

One union has voted against striking and current proposals aren't for long term action like the train strikes. Even if the remaining unions vote for action, it might not be the same day and knowing what teachers are like I do not think that they would ignore emails from students.

We should all be concerned for kids younger than ours that teachers are quitting, not joining the profession etc The younger kids will be less affected by the strike itself but without change they will have a worse education than our kids.

Just to echo comments above, I have dc in years 11 & 13 and am not in the slightest bit worried about the impact potential teacher strikes will have on their exam performance. Far more worried about the longer term impacts of teaching & support staff leaving in droves (completely understand why they are).

OP, the churn of supply teachers, lack of qualified staff and years of underinvestment mean that most state schools cannot come close to the offering at private. It's a national scandal.

You are worried about the impact of a few days of strikes. But your children's education has already taken a much bigger hit over years. And if no one forces the government to improve the situation, ever more students will be failed.

I haven't worked as a teacher for a few years but there is no way we would send out pupils to their exams not having completed the curriculum even though the timeline can be quite tight. We put on lunchtime revision, Saturday revision, after school revision as well as sending home revision guides, past exam papers etc so pupils would be as prepared as possible. Maybe teachers goodwill has changed due to current conditions but no teachers want their classes to fail or be unprepared.

The current state of schools and the pressure on staff is much more of a risk to children's education than a few days of strike action.

Your DC could use the day to revise material they already have covered or they could use it as a rest day to distress ahead of the countdown to exams.

*destress

Teachers won't be setting work on strike days. Kind of defeats the object of withdrawing labour.

Teachers won’t be setting work, otherwise it isn’t a strike! Members of other unions should absolutely not be covering for striking teachers.

I think the action could go on a long time, education is at crisis point. The government is to blame for this, not teachers.

Interested that you think there are no strikes in private schools. The GDST went on strike more recently than their counterparts in state schools.

www.schoolmanagementplus.com/latest-news/gdst-strikes-end-after-teachers-accept-pensions-offer/

Private school teachers are in unions too.

All of this is absolutely true, but doesn't make it unreasonable for someone to worry about the impact of the strikes on her children. OP didn't say that the strikes aren't understandable.

So have you approached the school about the situation?

I am surprised at those on here saying a few days missed makes little difference. Our school is very strict on attendance and constantly sends letters telling us how so many days missed means they'll not achieve certain grades. My DS was even questioned over the time he was off with covid so they clearly believe that days missed even due to illness have an effect on grades achieved, they certainly had statistics to prove this point.